Thursday, October 26, 2006 - By Andrea Thompson

A new global satellite survey of thunderstorm activity has helped meteorologists pinpoint exactly where Earth’s hotspots for intense thunderstorms are: the American Midwest, Argentina, and some semi-arid regions like the edges of the Sahara desert.

The new study, which appeared in the August issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, is "really the first quantitative look [at thunderstorms] around the world," said lead author Edward Zipser of the University of Utah.

Spotted here